


Tired

by donnarafiki



Series: Drarry Drabbles [13]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Chronic Illness, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Short, Sick Draco Malfoy, chronic exhaustion, harry being super caring and loving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-12 06:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12953640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donnarafiki/pseuds/donnarafiki
Summary: Two months ago Draco was poisoned and nearly died. Now, when the after-effects are presenting themselves, Harry needs to show his boyfriend that being tired doesn't mean being less-loved.





	Tired

Draco looked around in the kitchen, more than a little confused about what he was doing there. He was supposed to... supposed to… Despite wracking his tired brain his mind stayed blank.

Frustrated, he spun around in the room, hoping to spot a reminder of what he was doing there. It caused him to nearly fall over due to a spell of dizziness. Quickly he sat down at the kitchen table and dropped his head in his hands.

He felt so useless. Two months before a slow working poison, a form of revenge from a recently released death eater, had nearly killed him. It had drained his magical core almost entirely, and had left him chronically tired. So tired that functioning normally wasn't an option anymore. He hadn't been to his potions lab in months.

But the worst thing was that there was no way of knowing if he'd ever fully recover. The healers still hadn’t managed to figure out how the poison worked.

"What's the matter love?" Harry entered the kitchen, the tired rings under his eyes smaller than Draco's own, but they were still very much present.

"Stop calling me love." Draco sighed, unable to bear the nickname he felt so undeserving of. "I can't even bloody remember why I went into the kitchen. I'm fucking useless and about as far from lovable as one can get."

"Well I disagree." Despite his protests Harry climbed into Draco’s lap and pressed a firm kiss on his forehead. "I love you very much. You and your goofy smile, your tired eyes and your newest habit to forget you were collecting wine glasses.”

Draco groaned when the memory of Harry asking him for glasses came back to him. It was a bright and clear picture in his mind, so bright it was almost like the image was mocking him.

_See? You did know, you were just too lazy to remember. You should have tried harder but you didn’t and now you failed and Harry has to do everything for you. Again._

“Fuck, of course it were wine glasses.” Draco tried to push Harry off his lap so he could go fetch them now, but the Pakistani man would not move, so he gave up and instead just stared at the wine glasses behind the glass door of a kitchen cabinet. Those seemed to be mocking him as well.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, my love.” Harry tried to look into Draco’s eyes but Draco was stubbornly refusing to cooperate. “It’s not your fault, I shouldn’t have asked you to get them in the first place.”

“Yes you should. You should and then I should have gotten them and you should have just been able to crash on the couch after a hard day’s work instead of needing to take care of me.” He took a deep, shaky breath, forcing himself not to cry out of frustration. “I should at least make dinner for you. I know you hate cooking because of the Dursley’s, and being with me shouldn’t feel like being back at that-”

“Draco. Stop it. Wasting your energy by being mad at yourself won’t help anyone, least of all you.” Harry’s friendly face was suddenly serious and stern. “You’re still sick, you’re still recovering, and that process takes time. I can’t imagine how frustrating this is for you, but you have to get through it, and I’m already so proud of you for coming this far.”

Draco turned his face towards Harry, with the intention of telling the man that lying on the couch all day, except for the occasional ten minute shopping trip, was not something to be proud of. He didn’t get the chance to say anything though, because Harry sealed his lips with a tender, long lasting kiss.

“I love you Draco Malfoy, and I love taking care of you no matter how long this will take.” Harry swung one leg over Draco’s lap so the man now had one foot on either side of him. Then he took a hold of Draco’s hands and pressed both of them against his heart.

“Please stop wasting your energy on things I can do for you. Things I love doing for you. Making you dinner or breakfast in bed is nothing like what I had to do at the Dursley’s. They were ungrateful and abusive and incredibly demanding. You are loving and caring and not nearly as demanding as you should be. You know like no other how my saviour complex is bigger than the moon, please let me help you.”

“I shouldn’t need your help.” Draco managed to whisper after a very long time of blankly staring at Harry’s collarbone. His voice was thick with emotions and tears. “I should just get a good night’s sleep, take a shot of espresso and stop acting like such a baby. I hate being so bloody tired all the time for no apparent reason.”

“My love, you-” But Harry’s desire to lock lips with him won it from his desire to talk. For a moment no one spoke as Harry pulled Draco into a desperate, deep, almost wild kiss. They were both panting once he pulled back.

“You almost _died_ .” Harry pronounced the last word as if that would have been the end of all things holy, happy and good. As if it was only now, two months later, that he fully realised how close he’d been to losing Draco. “You almost died because of that fuckwit and it took two whole _weeks_ before it was even certain you would pull through. _That’s_ why you’re tired. Not because you’re a baby in need of sleep or coffee.”

Harry pulled Draco into a tight embrace, which was probably his way of conveying how scared he’d been of losing Draco, and how glad he was that the tired man was still amongst the living. “Just crawl into bed okay? I’ll order take away and then we’ll watch _The Crown_ on Netflix. When you have such little energy you should spend the bits and pieces you do have on something you enjoy doing.”

“Thank you.” Draco whispered into Harry’s hair. He was still blown away by the fact that he had somehow managed to get the most devoted, loving boyfriend in the universe, even after five years of dating. “I’ll try and do that.”

“That’s all I’m asking for.” Harry grinned at him after releasing him from the hug and ruffled his blonde hair. Draco glared at him. “You’re so cute when you’re grumpy.”

Draco glared at Harry some more. “I am not cute, thank you very much.”

“I beg to differ, and you’re welcome.” Harry winked at him as he got off his lap. “Now chop chop, to bed with you. Or I’ll turn off the TV just before Matt Smith’s butt comes on screen.”

“You wouldn’t.” Draco shot back. But his eyes had gone wide, or at least as wide as they could go with such heavy eyelids, and after giving Harry a quick kiss he disappeared into their bedroom.

Half an hour later he and Harry had formed an entangled mess under a mountain of blankets, with a bunch of take away boxes littered around them. Both of them grinned at each other when Matt Smith’s butt came on screen, and both of them fell asleep mere minutes after the end of the first episode, tired because of very different reasons.

The next morning after Harry had untangled himself from his boyfriend with extreme difficulty, he smiled fondly at him. Draco may be tired, not even halfway on his road to recovery and grumpy as hell at the best of times, but Harry loved him to to the Draconian constellation and back.

Something like chronic exhaustion was never going to change that.

**Author's Note:**

> A new season of The Crown (a show about queen Elizabeth) just came out of Netflix, and there’s a very nice shot of Matt Smith’s butt in the first episode of the series so that’s where that inspiration came from. 
> 
> The chronic exhaustion (exhaustion that lasts several months) is inspired by my mother, who will have chronic exhaustion for the rest of her life due to an auto-immune disease. It’s nasty, and shows you that it is very important to put your own energy to good use. 
> 
> Thank you for reading so far! kudos and comments are food for a writers soul, please don't let me starve<3


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